this post was submitted on 30 May 2026
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Where did the dust settle on Syncthing Fork? (lemmy.ca)
submitted 2 weeks ago by psycotica0@lemmy.ca to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
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Hey folks! I know a while back there was a kerfuffle because syncthing-fork for Android went dark, and then a new person showed up and claimed everything was cool and they'd been privately given the keys or something, and people were concerned. I pinned my fdroid version to the at-that-time-current release until we got clarity.

Well, it's been a while and I just noticed I'm still on that old release. So... how'd it turn out? Do we like the new person yet? Is there a promising fork y'all are using? Or is the project dead? I'm sure I could just go look at the repo, but I'm also sure the repo would tell me "yeah, we're all cool" no matter what, so I'm curious what the community feelings are. Have there even been any useful new releases since then?

Thanks!

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[–] perishthethought@piefed.social 12 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

Man, the BasicSync app has a long list of permissions...

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.chiller3.basicsync/

Why does it need to know my Location?

[–] Star@sopuli.xyz 23 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm using BasicSync since a few weeks, the location permission is completely optional. This is what the app says:

Location permissions are optional and are only needed when restricting allowed Wi-Fi networks. Even if the permissions are granted, they will not be used unless there are allowed Wi-Fi networks configured.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

What a bs permission to have been invented.
It should be it's own special network permission or something but what the hell does that have to do with the general meaning of "location"?.
Just allow the app to see what SSID I am connected to if I want to allow that

Sry for having to endure my rant

[–] theparadox@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

It's actually a bit informative. I believe Android approximates location using the SSID/WiFi information, so it's not just network that it's used for.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Hm...Still so.
It should be its fully own permission to allow even if it belongs both to location and networking.

[–] theparadox@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I think the idea is that it is not something separately securable? I don't disagree, I'd like to be able to disallow any app not explicitly granted permission to use any method to determine my location. Unfortunately if Google can scan WiFi and figure out your location, anything with access to WiFi can too maybe?

I don't know. I love technology but this fucking surveillance state situation is really getting to me. Routers using WiFi signal passing through your body to identify and locate you regardless of whether or not you are carrying any tech and all the other shit I don't know about... ugh.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 week ago

I'd like to be able to disallow any app not explicitly granted permission to use any method to determine my location

Yep. That's what ai want.

[–] psycotica0@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago

Yeah, like other people covered, it's unfortunate but also very important. It's easy to tie "visible wifi networks" to "surprisingly precise location on globe" in many places, so the permission is named for the worst case scenario. Yes, the app might just be looking for a wifi, but it also could use that same information to locate you, so it's the location permission. Sensible.

If they wanted to support just this one feature without requiring a location permission, they could maybe have an API that is "are you currently connected to this opaque token" API where the app can ask "am I connected" and is just told "yes" or "no". That's probably safe enough. And then I could register the app with my wifi without the app even knowing what my Wifi is, it just gets a unique but random string.

The same is true of bluetooth. If I can list nearby bluetooth, I can see that speaker and this TV and guess location. But there could be an API that hides that, there just isn't currently

[–] tinsuke@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

https://github.com/chenxiaolong/BasicSync#permissions

ACCESS_WIFI_STATE, ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION, ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION, ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATION, FOREGROUND_SERVICE_LOCATION

Optionally used for stopping Syncthing unless connected to specific Wi-Fi networks.

And location isn't a permission granted by default on install (unlike Internet access), the user has to approve of it explicitly.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Location is such a weird permission...
For example the permission is also needed to find local devices via bluetooth (eyeroll)...
And even then, local device finding is a sub-permission of location...

[–] timochka@lemmy.zip 10 points 1 week ago

I think that's more about telling users though that if they let an apl find local devices, that can be used to deduce your location.

[–] dan@upvote.au 4 points 2 weeks ago

At least it's open source so anyone can look at the code and figure out why it asks for the permissions.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 weeks ago

To know if you are on your home network and use direct lan etc, rather than finding a sync relay in the cloud...something like that.